Creationism versus Evolution

Creationism versus evolution remains as significant a debate in the culture war today as it did eighty years ago during the Scopes trial.  The creation-evolution controversy continues to rear its head, particularly in relation to the ongoing debate regarding the use of stem cells. Dr. Robert W., a reproductive physician in England, spoke to this morning about allusions to genetic modification and reproductive technology in the Old Testament. He suggests that science and religion can co-exist and are in fact mirror images of one another, like warring Siamese twins unwittingly dependent on one another yet struggling to evolve independently.

Dr. Robert W. posits that science and religion are compatible, despite what TEDster Richard D. argues in books like The G-d Delusion. For Dr. RW, religion and science are “expressions of man’s uncertainty”. Religious creationists and scientists pose answers to where we come from and where we’re going. Dr. RW warns against arrogance; strides in scientific knowledge should make us more aware of how little we know rather than instil a false sense of confidence. For Dr. RW, both science and religion pose the threat of danger in the way in which both camps promise certainty in a world where randomness determines more than we’d like to admit.

ADB on “Work”

The most recent Economist magazine positively reviews ADB’s recently-published The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, without a doubt a well-timed literary event which coincides with the G-20 meeting in East London where anarchists are protesting because work is scarce and sorrow plentiful. We recently saw ADB at the School of Life where he presented material from The Consolations of Philosophy, my favourite of his works. Tonight he spoke at the Royal National Theatre on the Southbank about his newest tome.

ADB is unique scholar on at least two accounts: he is a living philosopher and a funny one. In the opening of his talk he describes how until the 18^th century, people sought love and fulfilment in their “mistress and hobby” rather than “marriage and work”. During his two years immersed in a variety of companies including a biscuit factor and career counselling office, he describes himself as having engaged in rather obscure thinking such as contemplating the existence of an airplane cemetery followed by his hook phrase “as one would” while simultaneously rolling his eyes.

What is most refreshing about ADB, apart from his self-deprecating humor, is his ability to redirect our attention at the apolitical nature of mainstream discussions about work, family, love, success and happiness.  We live in a society where when one lacks any of the above it is due to the individual’s inadequacies rather than the limits of modern life.

Tonight he quickly glossed over the idea of “suppressed eroticism” at work (companies are jealous for workers’ attention, thus mandating office romance off-limits), the notion that the industry we currently work in is mortal and will be replaced by a succession of industries working towards eventual extinction, and the idea that work serves as a (welcome) distraction from pondering the bigger questions in life.  When asked his assessment of how the global credit crunch is affecting people’s relationship to work, he responded by saying how the middle-class expectation that work serve as a tool for fulfillment will evolve towards the blue-collar attitude that work is a way to make money. Additionally, he described how people are recalibrating their risk assessment of various career paths. Judging from the full house tonight, I suspect that a number of people walked away wondering if perhaps working as a full-time philosopher might be a more financially-rewarding, if not more fulfilling, career path than working as a credit officer at the Bank of England.

http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13361038

ADB on Pessimism

Today’s guest speaker at “The School of Life” was ADB, one of my favourite contemporary writers. A living philosopher, he examines tensions produced in modern life and suggests answers that fly in the face of popular thought. As an American, I was raised to the hymn of the Horatio Alger story and its countless variations (Cinderella, “Rags to Riches”, “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, MTV Cribs, etc.), so I admit I was a little put off by the title of today’s sermon, “Prepare to Fail”. Whereas I disagree with ADB’s emphasis on pessimism (my concern was that if one is pessimistic, where is the motivation to add value and work towards a goal?), I do appreciate ADB’s reminder that an often overlooked ingredient in attaining success and happiness is fortune, or luck. None of us have as much control over our destinies as we like to think we do. And the irony, as ADB points out, is that the more control we think we have over our futures, the more conducive it is to sadness and suffering.

Much of the material from today’s “sermon” was taken from ADB’s “The Consolations of Philosophy”, my favourite of his books.  In it, ADB (as does Buddhism which is clearly a source of inspiration in ADB’s work) describes frustration as a result of expectations, thus when life does not meet an expectation, frustration is a result. Thus follows ADB’s advice to lower expectations. M and I agreed that lowering expectations is de-motivating; I even posit that it is a cowardly way to avoid the stress of working towards a goal.

That aside, there were a number of ideas ADB proposed that were refreshingly nuanced, as opposed to the mainstream self-help drivel in health magazines, Internet advertisements, and bookstores (although ADB had no right to dismiss Tony Robbins whose work is sacrosanct among those of us interested in living a meaningful life).  Like the Dali Lama, ADB reminds us that there is a “need to suffer” in order to do good (ie. creating happiness for oneself and others). Additionally, I quite liked the simple antidotes for attaining happiness (remembering one’s mortality, contemplating the destruction of once-powerful empires, absconding to nature, enjoying art that provides insight into the darker facets of life).

For me, the study of positive psychology is one which exposes paradoxes between the tales of success promoted in our popular culture which we breathe in like so many invisible molecules versus the ancient yet hidden story of what generates meaningful and sustainable happiness.  One of the many earth-shattering realisations I’ve come to in my long-distance endurance run of soaking up the ideas proposed by the likes of ADB, Malcolm G., Barry S., Tony R., Mattheiu R., Robert T., the DL, Daniel G., etc. is that the more we do to minimize ourselves and distract from our own egos via working towards something bigger than oneself, engaging in charitable works, reminding oneself of his/her mortality, purposefully making oneself feel small in the great theatre of life by visiting a vast natural area like Jordan’s Wadi Rum or the remains of a once-powerful empire like Egypt’s Great Pyramids of Gaza, the more powerful we become.

Sam R. on Seduction

Sam R., known as the “voice of erotic liberation”, provided today’s sermon at the School of Life. Much publicized by the Saturday Financial Times and Vanity Fair magazines, the secular “sermons” moved to a new venue, Conway Hall in Bloomsbury. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Sam presented the notion that the purpose of life is the pursuit of happiness, or pleasure. In danger of reducing life’s meaning to a selfish hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, she quickly explained that one must satisfy “egotistical”, or the individual’s, need for pleasure, as well as work towards pleasure for all, for the “universal”. Wary that her words might help others rationalize having one too many helpings at the buffet at Ponderosa or return to Harrod’s to purchase the inexplicably expensive designer hand bag, Sam differentiates conspicuous consumption from pleasure as an insatiable desire that is globally destructive in addition to spiritually empty. Although I appreciated hearing Sam R.’s point of view, the notion that the pursuit of pleasure can one day ultimately result in enlightenment is dubious, to say the least.

The School of Life: Punctuality

It works out well that M and I place an equally significant emphasis on timeliness. Few people know their friendship/acquaintanceship has come under “review” in light of their lack of punctuality. Often is the case that a friend’s chronic lateness has been our rationale for not making plans with them at all.

Timeliness, and my fastidiousness to it, seems an altogether “unfashionable” value in the post-modern world where social commitments are “scheduled” hours beforehand vis-a-vis mis-spelled texts; I quote the verb schedule because plans can “legitimately” be changed with a follow-up text even one hour before the rendezvous time. Tardiness is now excused as long as the late-comer has the “respect” for texting/ringing at or even after the appointed time.

One might guess my obsession with timeliness (for myself and for others meeting me) is the hard-wired consequence of years of congregation attendance and Bible reading, regular Sunday schooling and youth group participation. But, alas, my fastidiousness has no easy explanation; I was neither raised religiously nor conditioned to think that tardiness was a sin. Geoff Dyer, the first speaker invited to provide a sermon at the “The School of Life”, does not provide an answer the question, “Why are some people punctual and others chronically late?” although he does suggest that maybe one’s delivery time at birth, might foreshadow his or her proclivity towards punctuality or tardiness.

During my reading and research of ADB’s work, I came across his “School of Life” where monthly sermons are provided to appeal to those interested in morals, ethics, codes of living and the like without having to give up secularism, inclusiveness, and the habit of questioning authority. Geoff Dyer’s November ’08 sermon on “Punctuality” is available for free. The sermon opens with an eleven-minute recording of Rev. A.W. Nix’s sermon “Black Diamond Express Train to Hell” which GD uses as a jumping point to discuss the consequences of being late. In the end, however, GD posits that although tardy people attempt to effuse an air of glamour in being late, they, in fact, are really bores, spending most of their time rectifying the consequences of being disorganised; carefree = careless.

The sermon’s final conclusion is that “punctuality is about time”. Punctuality is about keeping time, being in the appropriate place with the appropriate people at the right hour without overstaying one’s welcome and making time for our other commitments as well, whether it be a commitment to another friend, one’s work, or oneself.

http://www.theschooloflife.com/sermons/punctuality.aspx